This is the week Tuesday night got serious, as we saw increasing crossover appearances between Impact and AEW. Interested in who’s been doing undercard and midcard invasions? Read on for the AEW Dark view in our January 19 recap.
Last time on Dark…
KC Navarro and El Australiano visited from Impact and AAA to lose in style. Hobbs squashed Valle. Tay Conti and Serena Deeb got strong wins in the lead-up to their NWA championship clash. Read on in the January 12 recap.
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…
Over on last week’s Dynamite, Serena Deeb and Tay Conti had a great match for the NWA title. NJPW and Dark regular Danny Limelight teamed with Varsity Blondes to face Kenny Omega and his former-NJPW Bullet Club friends Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (visiting from Impact). This flood of crossover storylines is as hard to keep up with as it is exciting. Danny Limelight and Tay Conti both looked great in their losing roles. Brian Cage also lost to Darby Allin, in a clumsy finish that stretched my suspension of disbelief.
Being The Elite episode 239 featured a delightfully awkward exchange between former librarian Pretty Peter Avalon and still-a-librarian Leva Bates. She’s also got an awkward feud going with Kip Sabian over who’s the better gamer. There is also some feud between Allie and Brandon Cutler over the video game About Us. I watch a lot of AEW YouTube but following the Twitch streams is a hole that even I don’t want to go down, so you’re on your own if you want to figure out what’s going on with that crossover.
Episode 303 of Sammy Guevara’s vlog opens with Powerhouse Hobbs stealing former wrestler and superior BBQ tycoon ODB’s food truck. Good ol’ wrestling YouTube, subverting stereotypes. East Palo Altans: they’re more than just a bunch of tech workin’ yuppies! Speaking of stereotypes, Alan “5” Angels as a bad boy boy band member is a far better angle than it seemed it was going to be last week.
Sammy Guevara also appeared in his YouTube talk show with Kip Sabian, back for episode 4. Nick Comoroto gets the chance to not-answer such hard-hitting questions as “do you think it’s okay to kick a man in the penis?” Yes, yes it is. If it makes us laugh, go nuts.
Let’s cue up some YouTube goodies. Here’s episode 71.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
MEH: Fizzle
We open the evening with the only match on the card that had a build: Luchasaurus versus Brandon Cutler! Dinosaur versus dragon!
For those who weren’t keeping up on Being The Elite, this match was set up by Matt Hardy, for some mysterious reason known only to him. Cutler and Luchasaurus have tried to milk something out of the idea that Luchasaurus is a real dinosaur, but he’s also smart because he doesn’t believe in dragons. For a guy who literally tagged with a dragon in Lucha Underground, this kinda doesn’t go over for me.
The match doesn’t either. Luchasaurus gets the win, but neither of these guys do anything unexpected. Luchasaurus is treading water as a character. Cutler’s streak got broken without any storyline payoff. Next week’s BTE might save this, but for now, meh.
POP: Flippy floppy fun times
Next up is El Australiano, my favorite hula dancing luchador from last week, versus Sammy Guevara, my favorite little shit from last year.
Australiano does a better job coaxing Guevara into a comedy match than Nakazawa did a few weeks back. This is an aerial spot-fest, and it’s awesome. Australiano flips and dances around like a jackass, while Guevara sells each hit like he’s up against Brian frickin Cage.
Guevara only gets one big move in, and it’s the GTH, most likely to the annoyance of WWE’s T-Bar (formerly known as Dominik Dijakovic of NXT), who decided this week to get into a silly internet fight over the ownership of the move.
After winning, Guevara takes some time to practice a generic “I’m coming for all the belts” promo. I love the kid, but he’s still missing a bit of magic on the mic, to be honest.
POP: Plain and simple wrestling
Shawn Spears mysteriously disappeared from AEW about a month ago, but his nemesis Scorpio Sky is still hanging around trying to find people to fight. Tonight he’s found the wild man Nick Comoroto.
Comoroto and Sky work well together. Comoroto is quick enough to react convincingly to Sky’s offense, but also looks strong and tough enough to be a real threat. His backbreaker on the former SCU member is pretty brutal. Comoroto unleashes a full set of oldskool offensive maneuvers, punishing Sky’s lower back.
Fighting through the pain, Sky manages to hit the TKO for the win, on his second attempt. Excellent physical storytelling on both sides.
BOTCH: Dragonball zero
Marti Daniels has returned this week to face Shanna.
The feet are flying straight out of the gate here, with both wrestlers getting some stiff kicks in. Shanna winds up for an underwhelming elbow drop, which only seems to piss Daniels off, kicking and tossing the smaller woman around like it ain’t no thing.
Shanna takes Daniels out with a flying elbow, then a stunner, then she powers up to unleash a dropkick and two tiger suplexes for the win. The first suplex was botched, and Shanna does not look happy.
Not their best.
POP: Justice League meets Sin City
“The Empbruh” Baron Black enters with “Man of Steel” Mike Verna in a fabulously superhero-looking team-up. They’re facing The Butcher and The Blade (accompanied by The Bunny) and I am pumped. This is a comic book I would love to read.
Verna and Blade are first in the ring, and they are very slick. Verna has a great time bouncing from rope to rope and ducking out the way of Blade’s attacks. The Empbruh and big Butch come in next for some harder-hitting action. Black is cornered, then brutalized by all three Bs.
Finally, The Empbruh reaches Verna with the hot tag, and our man of steel dispatches both Butcher and Blade, in style! What a rush! But the Bs are too damn good at distracting the ref, and Blade rakes the eyes, busting Verna’s momentum long enough to pull out a finisher.
The Bs get the win, in my match of the night!
POP: Gunn Club dominate the Gunn Club division
Time for trios! Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN, generic wrestle guy Adam Priest and sexy glam metaler Vary Morales are all teamed up to face The Gunn Club.
Billy and Morales start off in a very unmatched pairing. Morales tags out to Priest, who is also duly clobbered. It’s Ryzin!!! The occult pro wrestler gets a few shots in before being slammed to the canvas, then piled on by brothers Austin and Colten. He tags out to Morales, who kicks off a lovely sequence with Austin. The jobbers exchange some quick tags, firing off one move after another at the beleagured Gunn son. They look great!
But Austin reaches brother Colten for the tag! Colten powerslams everyone, then pins Morales for the win to close off this fun match.
POP: Squashed, outta nowhere
Serpentico’s alter ego Jon Cruz is back to tag with Danny Limelight versus “Proud and Powerful” Santana and Ortiz in an epic battle of the AEW Puerto Ricans.
Santana and Limelight get us off to a stiff start, with a hard slapping kicks. Cruz doesn’t even get to tag in, he gets splattered by P&P. Blink and you miss it, Santana and Ortiz win.
This was a much bigger squash than expected. Limelight and Cruz deserved better. But if Santana and Ortiz don’t win the spot as top tag team in Inner Circle after this, wrestling isn’t real.
EH: We interrupt this program…
Pretty Peter Avalon makes his sleazy way to the ring to cut a promo. He challenges Lee Johnson to a “Walk Off” match. Which, basically, is not a match, it’s a Zoolander walk off.
Tune in next week, yadda yadda.
POP: All party, all the time
Speaking of Lee Johnson, here he is with Aaron Solow to face Private Party. Solow’s apparently in the doghouse, since partner Bayley over in WWE didn’t make a secret of her favoritism on social media.
Kick solows ass
— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) January 19, 2021
There is some in-promotion storyline here too as Matt Hardy uses this match to boss Private Party around and push them into a heel turn which surely they’ll never go for? The high flyers try hit some heel offense, and it doesn’t work out well for them, allowing Johnson to come back with an awesome blue thunder bomb, and Solow to hit a couple of smooth moves.
Eventually Private Party go back to their wheelhouse and get the win. Although, it is tainted by Hardy delivering a cheap shot to Solow’s face while he’s tied up. The plot thickens!
Hardy Party also showed up on Impact, not five minutes later! They fought some dudes I never heard of called Chris Sabin and James Storm, which makes them number one contenders for the Impact tag titles. Busy evening.
POP: Another number one contender
“The Pink Dream” Alex Gracia rejoins us this week to face Big Swole.
The commentary informs us that Big Swole is the number one contender for the AEW women’s title right now, which… ‘kay. She hasn’t had a singles match in 6 weeks! Apparently it’s because she’s training under Dean Malenko, so something something wins and losses something.
She does look a bit better in the ring than last year, admittedly. Gracia also gets some confident hits in, including a 619 and some nice wrist locks. There’s a sharp sequence where Swole goes for a roundhouse, then a sweep kick, both of which are expertly dodged by Gracia, then a desperate headbutt takes her out!
The Dirty Dancing finisher gets Swole the win.
POP: Kiss takes care of business
“The Concrete Rose” Sonny Kiss is back for a solo outing versus upstate jobber Zack Clayton.
Kiss gets straight to business, hitting Clayton with kick after kick. He comes back with a delayed vertical suplex, but that doesn’t take our Jersey boy out, who quickly comes back with some beautiful high kicks and a diving leg drop for the win.
POP: Top Flight slum it again
Impact pretty boy KC Navarro joins WWE Tough Enough veteran AJ Kirsch in a jobber duo being served up to Minnesota high flyers Top Flight.
Navarro spends a bunch of time getting his ass kicked in this match, and he’s definitely one of my favorite losers they’ve had on Dark. He expertly dodges one of Dante Martin’s dropkicks, then taunts him, only to run straight into the next one. Lovely work.
Kirsch is a much louder and angrier character, and since I’ve never seen him before I kinda don’t get it. His in-ring skills are pretty slick, though.
Dante finally escapes the jobbers and hits brother Darius for the hot tag, who unleashes a blistering offensive sequence that ends in a hell of a Spanish fly, Dante jumps to the outside, Darius pins Navarro for the win.
Bit messy, but very fast, very exciting, and for damn sure The Future Of Wrestling™.
BOTCH: Just give up on the women’s tags already
Women’s Tag Team Cup champs Ivelisse and Diamante have a new jobber duo to face – Tesha Price and Katalina Perez.
Diamante and Price get into it, showing a bit more fierceness than in their last meeting two weeks ago. Price and Perez hit a double suplex on Diamante, before she turns it around and reunites with Ivelisse to pass Perez back and forth.
This match is really patchy. There are some very stiff sequences that look vicious as hell, but Price misses a few spots and the general flow isn’t there.
Perez eats the pin. Just like the match two weeks ago, it left me wanting to watch Ivelisse’s partner fight Price’s partner.
I don’t think tag teams are working well for the women’s division in AEW. There doesn’t seem to be enough veteran talent able to use the format to help lift up the newer or less skilled workers. Moving to singles wouldn’t solve the problem of a lack of veterans, but it might make for more consistent matches.
POP: The Acclaimed polish their gimmick
“The Captain” Shawn Dean and Fuego del Sol have been tossed together to face Very Annoying Rappers The Acclaimed.
Max Caster’s entrance rap elicited a small chuckle from me this week. Not a bad start. He quickly wipes out del Sol, only to struggle a bit more with Dean. Anthony Bowens sneaks a blind tag to deliver a hell of a neckbreaker to The Captain.
The Acclaimed embrace their inner comedy foils here by having some meeting of the minds and other well-timed friendly fire moments that likely would’ve gotten a decent pop out of a live crowd. It’s always funny to watch shitheads “mess up”.
Del Sol goes for the tornado DDT, but Caster reverses it! Bowens tags in, the shitheads hit their finisher, and it’s done.
POP: Lucha chaos
Our main event of the evening is a monster lucha throwdown – Chaos Project versus Lucha Bros! The Luchas have pyro! Yeah!
Starting off is Penta el Zero M and Luther. Luther is enough of a weirdo that it doesn’t seem out-of-place for him to just stand there dopily while Penta pulls out his cero miedo taunt. It works so much better in wacky supernatural wrestling than in “serious” matches.
Serpentico powers up a fucking hadouken while Fénix stands there, bemused. It’s great. Fénix and Serpentico work with acceptable agility, then it’s Penta back in the ring getting the Luther’s special delivery of Serpentico’s head to his chest.
Penta gets his own back by stringing Serpentico up on the ropes and using Luther’s head as a battering ram. What is going on?! Everyone pretty much clobbers everyone. Fénix runs across the ropes and kicks Luther in the head. It’s mayhem! Chaos Project turns every match into a disaster, but somehow it’s still a ton of fun.
The Luchas take it.
This was a bumper 14-match episode, packed tight into a two hour serving. Dark is really spoiling me with these economical matches. I tend to find the Dynamite outings a bit of a slog nowadays. God help me if I ever have to recap some ultra-tedious match like Kenny Omega versus John Moxley or something. If you can’t do it in 10 minutes, it’s not worth doing!
Well, I’ll still tune in for some restaurant quality picture-in-picture. This week the undercard highlight on Dynamite will be Pretty Peter Avalon stopping by to try create a GIFable moment with Cody Rhodes. Leyla Hirsch is also back to face Penelope Ford. That’ll be one to watch for! Join me back here next week for the YouTube report.
